Alexander Rodchenko is regarded as one of the most important artists of the 20th century and the most important Soviet photographer. He worked as a decorator, furniture and theater designer, printer, painter, sculptor, and photographer. Best known as a Russian Constructivist artist, he co-wrote the Constructivists' manifesto in 1921 which advocated the use of machine-made materials such as wire, glass, and sheet metal in the creation of socially useful art for a society in the midst of revolution. Rodchenko turned to photography in 1924. An ardent experimenter, he regarded the camera as a highly flexible drawing instrument. His use of foreshortening and non-vertical camera angles became trademark techniques. He advised aspiring photographers to "take several different photographs of an object, from different places and positions as though looking it over."